By CHRIS MCGANN, P-I CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, April 20, 2007

OLYMPIA -- Gov. Chris Gregoire's Puget Sound restoration initiative passed out of the Senate on a 43-4 vote Friday after a related bill that would have protected the Maury Island aquatic reserve died, ending a last-hour standoff between the House and the Senate.

The Senate had been holding up Senate Bill 5372, which will launch the $8 billion Puget Sound restoration, insisting that it made no sense to embark on the effort at the same time mining expansion is allowed in the Sound's only aquatic reserve.

But after negotiating late into Thursday night, House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D- Hoquiam, refused to budge. She said the bill would not have enough support in the House if the Maury Island bill were added, and she refused to include it as a budget proviso. The Senate finally relented to avoid a deadlock that threatened derail the broader restoration investment.

Sen. Erik Poulsen, D-West Seattle, fought to include provisions that would have protected the Maury Island reserve.

He was disappointed Friday afternoon.

"It became clear that Rep. Kessler wouldn't vote for any budget that contained protections for Maury Island, and she wields a lot of power in that caucus," he said.

Giving up on the bill essentially gives the Glacier Northwest mining operation a green light to dramatically expand its sand and gravel mining on the central Puget Sound island.

Opponents, including most of the environmental community, said the prospect of subjecting one of the best aquatic habitats in the Sound to industrial expansion is a stunning contradiction to the goals of the new Puget Sound restoration effort.

But officials of the company, which has been trying to do just that for about a decade, said they've jumped countless regulatory hurdles to gain approval for the project off Maury Island.

They said the work would be done in an ecologically sensitive manner, including replacing polluting creosote pilings with steel and making sure the eelgrass remains healthy.

The expanded mine located near the island's eastern shore would provide material to be shipped across the Sound with towboats pulling barges, some bigger than a football field.

Access to increased supplies of locally mined sand could help reduce the price of concrete and help with sky-high building costs, Glacier officials have said.

"All we wanted was a study and a timeout," Poulsen said. "The House rejected that and every other proposal we made. This morning, it was clear we were at an impasse and the Senate believes the Puget Sound Partnership and the state budget are both too important to stop. We are taking the higher ground, and we will take this fight up another day.

"I think everyone believed that (continuing to fight for the bill) would grind the session to a halt and the Senate decided to take the higher ground," he said.

As it stands, Poulsen said, the Maury Island reserve is protected in name only.

"The state commissioner (of public lands') management plan contains a loophole that grandfathers the barging of up to 40 million tons of material for the next 40 years.

"The idea that the massive expansion of a gravel pit in the heart of Puget Sound can have no environmental impact barely passes the straight-face test," he said.

"You'd think that having the support of the Senate majority leader, the speaker of the House, the governor herself and the entire environmental community would be enough to sway the House to take a short timeout to make sure mining project doesn't conflict with our new Puget Sound Partnership's goals," Poulsen said.

Asked where she stood on the Maury Island protections, Gregoire said only that she did not like that it was "gumming up" the progress of her Puget Sound initiative.

"I want to get that issue addressed so we can go home," Gregoire said. "I support the idea of having the Puget Sound bill absolutely come out intact before we leave town on Sunday night. That's my No. 1 priority right now."